PTI contacts allies for Army Act amendment

KARACHI: The ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has started contacting coalition partners as the government looks to amend the Army Act to continue Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa’s service extension beyond six months.

Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi met a delegation of the Muttahida Quami Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) on Sunday in Karachi. Qureshi and MQM-P leader Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui spoke to media after their meeting.

“The MQM-P has always stood by the PTI government in difficult times,” he said. “Our next meeting in Islamabad will yield results.”

Siddiqui said the MQM-P would continue to support the PTI government. “We will continue our conditional support to the PTI government,” he said.Siddiqui said the government was working on the demands of the MQM-P at a slow pace. He urged the government to play a vital role for Karachi’s development.

In another development, the PTI on Sunday formed a three-member committee comprising Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Defence Minister Pervez Khattak and Planning Minister Asad Umar to hold talks with opposition parties with regard to amendment to the Army Act.

Meanwhile, Federal Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry, addressing a press conference in Lahore on Sunday, proposed the establishment of a joint parliamentary committee so that consensus could be formed on the issues of amendment to the Army Act and economic policies.

He said some elements politicised the issue of the extension of the tenure of the Army chief. He stressed the need for laying the foundation of a new contract among state institutions. Chaudhry said there should not be any confrontation among institutions. He said both the Prime Minister and the Army chief wanted to see civil institutions strong.